Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — Bedeviled by technology glitches that frustrated millions of consumers, the Obama
administration is taking down its health-overhaul website for repairs this weekend.

Enrollment functions of the healthcare.gov site will be unavailable during off-peak hours this
weekend, the Health and Human Services Department said yesterday.

The website will remain open for general information.

Technology problems overwhelmed the launch of new health-insurance marketplaces on Tuesday,
embarrassing the administration just when the health-care law was supposed to be introduced to
average consumers.

“Americans have seen once again that Obamacare is not ready for prime time,” Rep. Eric Cantor of
Virginia, the No. 2 House Republican, said in a statement. “A dysfunctional website is the least of
that law’s problems.”

The administration is putting the best face on the situation, noting the unexpectedly strong
interest from millions of consumers. “Americans are excited to look at their options for health
coverage, with record demand in the first days of the marketplaces,” the release said of the
planned fixes.

The state-level marketplaces were designed to be the gateway to health insurance for people who
don’t have access to coverage on the job. Middle-class consumers will be able to buy
government-subsidized private plans, while the poor and near-poor will be steered to Medicaid in
states agreeing to expand the program.

Both federal and state websites experienced problems this week. Some states, including Maryland,
also have announced that they are scheduling repairs.

Credit-card companies, banks and other online service providers regularly take down websites for
repairs. That might also become a feature of the new insurance program. The release did not provide
a specific schedule for this weekend’s repairs.

The federal site, which serves 36 states, drew millions of users, an indication of strong
consumer interest. Yet many people were unable to get on the site and others encountered glitches
that prevented them from successfully completing their applications.

At the end of the first day, at most a handful of people had managed to successfully enroll
through the federal site.

However, by yesterday, enrollments seemed to be picking up — though not yet at desired levels.
The administration is not releasing numbers.

By Monday, “there will be significant improvements in the online consumer experience,” the
agency said.

The upgrades include extra capacity for more users to access the system, more technicians
working round-the-clock to fix problems, and new pathways to quickly access the application.

Call centers also are getting more staffing, and the agency said wait times are now down to less
than a minute.

The administration previously announced that it is adding equipment to handle the high volume of
users. Now it looks like software fixes also are needed.

Consumers have until Dec. 15 to enroll for coverage that starts on Jan. 1.